If you are looking at how to increase blog traffic to a new blog or to get traffic to your website, you are in the right place.
Traffic, aka visitors to your website, are essential to blogs and businesses. Without traffic, we have no readers and without readers, we make no sales.
I say this often, but starting a blog is just like starting a business. Rarely do we see businesses that make it, without having to put any thought or effort into how they are going to get customers.
Let’s take a look at my favorite five ways to get traffic back to your blog and website.
Increase Blog Traffic through SEO
Most blogs rely on traffic from the search engines. It is the best type of traffic to get. As it’s organic and free.
And the best way to get traffic through the search engines is with Search Engine Optimization or SEO, for short.
Search engines, such as Google, Bing and Safari, rely on written text and keywords to tell them what a page is about.
It is not nearly as difficult as it sounds, but it does take time and effort to implement. And you have to be strategic about it, especially when just starting out.
Let’s take a look at this example.
Let’s say you are starting a blog on puppy training. You wrote a blog post and optimized it with the keyword “how to train a new puppy”.
Now, Susie, a first time dog owner, fires up her laptop and searches for “how to train a new puppy”. And within seconds, she is delivered hundreds of pages that will help her do just that.
Does she find your blog post? Maybe … But, probably not.
Most people do not make it past the first couple of pages of Google (or whichever other search engine). And the chances of your blog post being found on the first page, with a brand new blog, is pretty low.
Now, I know you’re probably sitting there like, “this lady is a waste of my time”. But, stick with me.
When I go to my handy dandy Keyword helper, KeySearch, and search “how to train a puppy”. What do we see?
We see that it’s estimating there are 40,500 searches for the key phrase “how to train a puppy”.
Looks pretty good, right? BUT, hold on for just a second. We have to also look at the level of competitiveness for the keyword.
KeySearch is telling us it has a competitive value of 52 and that “it is fairly difficult” to rank for.
This means that, as a new blogger, you will have a substantially harder time ranking for “how to train a puppy” than if you have an established blog. In other words, instead of showing on page 1 of Google, your blog post is likely to be buried deep within the search results.
And this is where being strategic comes in.
As we look down the list of keywords generated by KeySearch, we come across a keyword phrase, “how to crate train a puppy at night”.
The search volume in no where near the first keyword, but it’s not terrible either. And look at that competitiveness! It is only a level 30, meaning you have a much better shot of ranking for that specific keyword.
As a new blogger, one of the best ways you can be strategic with SEO, is by writing content on low-hanging fruit. Such as found in this example.
There are plenty of ways to find keywords. But, I do recommend investing in a keyword finder, sooner rather than later. It will greatly diminish the length of time you spend researching keywords and topics to cover on your blog.
I love KeySearch, especially for new bloggers. It is so easy to use, straight forward and extremely affordable. Specifically if you were to compare them to other options out there.
I’ve now partnered with KeySearch to save you even more money. Save an additional 20%, when you purchase through my affiliate link. Simply use code: KSDISC at checkout!
How to Increase Blog Traffic through Pinterest
When it comes to learning how to increase blog traffic, new bloggers can’t rely on SEO alone. Especially in the beginning. As it can take a bit of time for search engines to find, evaluate, trust and then recommend your blog.
So what are new bloggers to do? Wait around for the search machines to take notice?
No. We get to work!
Once the first 5-10 awesome blog posts are published on your blog, it’s time to start driving traffic to them.
My (and many other bloggers) favorite way to do this is through Pinterest.
Most people look at Pinterest and consider them to be a social media platform. Instead, you need to think of them as a visual search engine.
Let me show you how powerful Pinterest can be.
In just a moment, I will be sharing the backend of my Google Analytics, for a blog that I haven’t touched in many months. And, it’s only got a handful of posts published.
Much of the traffic is coming from a Pinterest Pin I created for a freebie and shared in August of last year. It was a viral pin that continues to drive traffic (rather small in number now) to this tiny blog.
Other than answering a few questions, I haven’t touched this pin since last August!
So, let’s take a look at this first screenshot.
As you can see, “social” is responsible for bringing 8,255 or 44% of users to this itty bitty blog. Yes, Google categorizes Pinterest as social. And I will show that to you now.
When the “social” bucket in Google Analytics is opened, we are presented with the below data.
As you can see Pinterest, alone, was responsible for 8,198 visits. This, again, is a tiny micro blog. One that I didn’t feel aligned with and have since moved on from.
BUT, just imagine if I had kept at it. Who knows where that traffic would be today.
UPDATE: After writing this, I have decided to see where I can take this mystery blog. I will be periodically sharing updates here on this website.
New bloggers don’t have to sit around and wait for the search engines to notice you. Utilizing Pinterest is just one way to drive traffic to a brand new blog.
Utilizing Social Media to Drive Traffic
In order to utilize social media as a way to drive traffic, you first need to determine which platforms your audience is hanging around on.
Are they on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc?
If they can be found on multiple platforms, pick one or two social media sites to focus on, first. Then, start attracting your ideal customer/readers by connecting with them through social media.
The best way to be successful with social media marketing is to stay consistent with it. Whether that is making one reel a day on Instagram or publishing one video a week on YouTube, etc.
Consistency is the name of the game, when it comes to social media. It’s good for the algorithms and for your following.
How to Increase Blog Traffic with Social Media
Most social media platforms allow you to place at least one link in your profile. Instead of directing this link to your homepage, you could instead create a page of useful links for your following.
For example, let’s say you have a home decor blog. You are sharing content about your most recent kitchen renovation.
You could have a button titled “kitchen reno”. Where that could link to your kitchen renovation blog post.
This blog post is ideally where you would share the tools you used, the materials you bought, light fixtures, rugs, etc.
By doing this, it helps your following quickly find the information they are looking for. Which is beneficial for both you and them.
Guest Post on Other Blogs
Guest blog posting is when you post an original piece of content on another blogger’s website. It is a mutual benefit for both bloggers.
They will get a new piece of content to promote. And you will be able to leverage their audience through a backlink back to your blog.
Start an Email List
Starting an email list is, generally speaking, one of the best things you can do for your blog. It serves as a direct link between you and your following.
If you have a blog post that you don’t want anyone to miss, you could send an email highlighting just that.
However, my favorite way of notifying new subscribers of new blogs posts is to simply put it at the bottom of my weekly newsletter.
That way, if they are interested they can simply come on over to check it out.
If you are in the market for an email service provider, my current recommendations include MailerLite, Flodesk and ConvertKit. Check out my review of Flodesk here.
As I test and try out other methods on how to increase blog traffic, I will update this post. At the time of writing, these are my favorite five ways for bloggers to get traffic back to their website.
If you haven’t yet started your blog, I recommend checking out this post. I take you through all of the steps you need to take to get your blog started today.
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